Malkangiri
Palash Biswas
(contact: Palash Biswas, c/o Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur,
Kolkata-700110, India. Phone: 033-25659551)
Only an incarnation of a real Bapu may save the Bengali refugees
including the resettled Noakhali victims of Kendrapara. Perhaps a
little Gandhigiri, too.
My parents began their married life in Charbetia refugee camp near
Cuttack. My mother Basanti devi who died only this June, belonged to
Baripada in Mayurbhanj. She never visited her maternal once exiled in
Dineshpur under Nainital districts in Terai`s dense forest in 1953.
My father Pulin Kumar Biswas was a real social worker who worked for
refugees lifelong. He led refugee movement in West Bengal, Orrissa,
UP and Uttaranchal. He visited Assam, MP, Maharashtra,
Bihar,Chhattisgargh, rajsthan, Tamilnadu,Andhra, Bihar, Jharkhand
refugee colonies all the year round. He was a nonpaid wholetimer
President of All India Udvastu Samiti. He used to come orrissa time
to time. He died in June, 2001 suffering cancer. Before his death he
visited Maharashtra refugees. Thus, Orrissa, Charbetia and refugees
resettled in Orrissa and their problems touched me very very
personally. these are my peaple who suffer. May I not do a little
thing for them. At least, as a proactivist journalist professional I
am trying to circulate the story untold, a story of inherent
injustice and inequality.
Many Bengali Hindu refugees were rehabilitated by creating number of
villges by Dandakaranya Project a brainchild of Indira Gandhi and
Biju Patnaik. The refugees arrived from erstwhile East Pakistan.
These Bengali villages were named with numbers i.e., MV 1, MV 79, MPV
17, etc. MV stands for Malkangiri village and MPV stands for
Malkangiri Potteru village. Most of these villages are found on the
two sides of the Malkangiri-Motu road SH-25 (State Highway) nearly
100 km. stretch and towards Malkangiri-Balimela road. The Bengali
villages are colorful with their weekly haats (shandies or markets)
being held evreyday at one village or the other. Number of small
traders make good money in these haats. It is quite a tragedy that
the son of the Great national leader, Biju Patnaik - On whom my
friend film director Rajeev Kumar made a full length documentary- The
Eagle in the Storm, Naveen Patnaik is the mastermind behind Eviction
Bengali drive. Under Dandakaranya Project, resettlement zones at
Umerkote, Malkangiri,. Paralkote and Kondagoan were earmarked. In
each. zone, villages were set up for 40 to 60 refugee .
I don`t know whether anyone has sent a rose to the Orriss Chief
Minister Naveen Patnike for his anti bengali drive with eviction
notices served to the resettled partition victims of Kendrapara.
Returning from Kendrapara I saw a TV channel live telecast about a
woman imprisioned in a wooden room for twenty years in Kendrapara. I
reconised those eyes, those frightened, bright and live eyes
challanging the very existence of a civilized human society in this
country. The TV channel launched a SMS drive to release her. It is
quite understandable that no media is going to initiate such a
campaign for the Noakhali Victims destined bleeding heart for ever.
The second October and the live discussion on Gandhigiri created a
rere hope that may be, some Munnabhai would stand in favour of those
who were rescued by Bapu himself in Nokhali.I hope, it has to happen.
As I got a phone call from Khagria the next fine morning while I
posted my report on Noakhali victims on net. Vivek Umrao, a brilliant
student of IIT Kanpur who did finish his Phd from Lucknow School of
management, has worked with Sandeep Pandey, Rajendra Singh and Medha
Patekar, is the managing director of Nav Nirman Sanstha was the
person on the other side of the reciever. He is associated with NAPM.
We discussed the refugee problem overall and felt the need to
coordinate all mass movements immidiately. As not only the refugees
across the border , but the refugees within the country are being
victimized by the ruling classes. Capitalist development, big dams
and projects have been the cause of dispalacement of underclasses. In
Orrissa itself, the dispalced presons having land in different
project areas are fighting for their existence. Naveen Patnaik and
Buddhadev Bhattachary are signing MOU daily with multinationals for
capital investment without taking consideration of the underclasses
to be displaced. NAPM is active in Orrissa. Now a new threat seems to
overtake all other miseries, the special economis zone policy adopted
and promoted by the govenment of India.
The Bengali resettlement colonies are situated under Mahakalpara
Block of Kendrapara district which is going to be the centre of SEZ
In search of OIL resources in the coastal areas of Orrissa
encompassing Paradip and Bhitarkonika Abhayaaranya. Thus not only the
Noakhali victims or other Bengali resttlers , the old traditional
Oria speaking villages and the Santhals and other tribals face
serious threat of eviction.
Umrao assured the support of NAPM to resettled Bengali refugees and
the Utkal Bangiya Surakshya Samiti.
In Kolkata, Sahmarmi, the organisation who stoodvery storngly in
support of Uttarancal resettled Bengali refugees, deprived og
Domicile certificate and citizenship and agitated with mass support
from the local communities , political parties and media as well in
2001, has come forward to creat public opinion. Sahmarmee organized a
seminar on 8th October in a Cal University Hostel, Udayan. I had to
address the seminar. Wediscussed the problem in detail. Mass
organisations in Bengal, along with Sahmarmi, All India Refugee
Front, Sangramee Udvastu Samiti,Dalit Samanyaya Samiti, Aiktaan and
others stand unitedly with the Noakhali victims. Not only in Kolkata,
I got phone calls from different parts of India including the
national capital Delhi. The activists and organizations are pledging
support.
All India Bengali Refugee coordination leaders and workers spread all
over the country are trying to mobilise masses with the support of
Mulnivasi Bamsef. Vaman Meshram has raised the issue on international
forums. The convenor of All India Bengali Refugee Coordination
committe, Dr Subodh Biswas from Nagpur is taking personal interest in
Orrissa. Kanailal Biswas from Mumbai, Nityanand Mallik from Pilibhit,
UP, Manmatha Biswas from Raipur- all are active.
Most positive point is that the matter is not communal at all, Utkal
Bangiya Surkshya Samiti is leading us. The CPI(M) also opposed the
Government move to deport the residents strewn across ten villages of
the Mahakalapada block. But the state government and ruling left
front did not issue any statement. BJP was agains deportation of
Hindu refugees while all prominent Congress leaders in Orrissa stood
united in support of the partition victims.
Kendrapara`s collector, Hemant Sharma, admits that the decision of
deportation, though not illegal, has resulted in a human problem. He
realises, we understand. But he has to follow the order of Naveen
Patnaik.Only 201 of the 1548 "infiltrators" residing in Mahakalapada
block of the district had come forward to submit documents seeking to
strike off their names from the enumerated list of "Bangladeshis".
But only around two dozen of these people were found to have
submitted documents in support of their claim about Indian
citizenship. The rest of the papers were "mere petitions" Devoid of
documentary proof stating they were natives of West Bengal and had
migrated to Orissa to earn their livelihood, official sources
claimed.
I am sure Patnaik has to get heavy amount of roses some day in
future. Yes, Gandhigiri is also to be practiced to ressist the
draconian administrative action.
Who have been identified for deportation in the Mahakalpada block are
Hindus. The Biju Janata Dal government is evidently reluctant to
deport the Muslims in Muslim-dominated areas of Kendrapara. Navven is
also playing the game to crate a HIndu Muslim non existent divide in
Orrissa.Though nearly 3,000 illegal Bangladeshis, a majority of them
Muslims, have been identified across the state, never has the Hindu
community residing in the coastal region been targeted in such a
concerted manner. The campaign speaks of inhumanity as also double
standards,? alleges Milan Debnath, president of the Ramnagar
Traders`Committee.
While the adults in Mahakalpada block of Kendrapara wrestle with the
notices, the children have also been hit by the drive. Of those who
have been served notices, at least 300 are children. Nervousness is
writ large on their faces even as they play with one another. A week
ago, children in the Hariabanka ME School of Kharinasi village were
adding up figures in their classrooms. Now, they are calculating how
many of their classmates would have to leave for Bangladesh.
It is the same story everywhere in Ramnagar, Kharinasi, Bahakuda,
Pitapata, Baraja-bahakuda and Jamboo. As the teachers try to comfort
these hapless young ones, they have also become the facilitators for
the administration in the deportation process. The official team that
came for handing the notices could not locate the parents and found
it easier to trace the children in the school. The headmaster was
summoned, leading to a disruption of classes. The enlisted children
were asked to come out of the classes and receive the notice. ?You
are Bangladeshis, you will have to leave for Bangladesh for
continuation of studies in a Bangla school,? a gun-wielding police
constable told them bluntly
Right to citizenship
Those who argue in favour of the refugees' right of citizenship say
that Bengali refugees had come here after partition and during the
formation of East Pakistan/Bangladesh. A generation has been created
here. Those who were teenagers or young at that time have now grown
old, they have lost their property and relatives in Bangladesh. Today
they face an identity crisis. Neither the Bangladeshi government nor
the Indian government accepts them. Not possessing citizenship
certificates, they are vulnerable to exploitation and torture by the
local police.
"Refugees should not be dealt with like outsiders; they should be
treated like human beings," said Mohammad Amin, chief of Adhikar, a
state level NGO. Wherever they go, they adopt the norms of the local
society, its culture and lifestyle. In fact, the problems with
refugees are not of the local people, it is the politicians who are
making a hue and cry about the issue, argues Amin. He adds that
refugees are Migrant Labourers and the government should enforce the
Migrant Labour Act to protect them. Besides, many international
bodies and summits exist to protect the human rights of refugees and
migrant labourers.
In the recent past, the tribal and local residents have raised their
voice for the ouster of refugees. The movement has now taken the
shape of violent resistance. At least four tribal people have been
killed in police firing and two by Bengali refugees, from June to
October last .
The Orissa unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party expressed displeasure
over the deportation of Bangladeshi infiltrators by the State
Government. Nearly 3,000 infiltrators have been identified in
different districts and a batch of 21 has been deported. The party's
state executive committee passed a resolutiondemanding that a high-
level committee look into the issue before the Government went ahead
with the deportation.
Observing that the Government was deporting Bangladeshi refugees
treating them as infiltrators, the committee suggested that there
should be proper identification of refugees and infiltrators living
in the State. Briefing presspersons at the end of the meeting, the
vice-president of the State unit, Anadi Charan Sahu, said the State
Government had started the deportation in Nawrangpur and Malkangiri
districts under pressure from parties opposed to the BJP. The 800-odd
families who had been identified as illegal infiltrators were second
generation refugees, he said.
Not only Kendrapara, the resettled Bengali refugees are not in peace
anywhere in Orrissa in BJD-BJP regime.
Acting on a writ petition filed by some Bengali immigrants claiming
Indian citizenship, the High Court, in an interim order, had directed
the Nowarangpur district collector to verify the records and complete
identification of all illegal Bengali immigrants settled in the
district. The district collector served Quit India notices to 130
illegal Bengalli immigrants settled in Nowrangpur in the wake of the
recent clashes between the Bengali settlers and tribals at Raigarh.
(OTV Web Bureau)
Administration claimed ,`Most Bangladeshis fail to provide bonafide
evidence'. In Kendrapara, all evidences show that the resettled
refugees are bonafied Indian citizens. Actually what happened , the
ruling classes were successful to divide the tribal from the
underclass Bengali Resettled refugees elsewhere. But it did not
happen in Kendrapara due to the positive initiative of Utakal Bangiya
Surkshya Samiti.
The State Government had earlier said that infiltration posed a
potential security threat and decided to deport the infiltrators in
batches of 25 persons each. The deportation process will continue
till all the infiltrators were sent back, the Home Secretary, T.K.
Mishra, had said.
The Government had also clarified that the present deportation drive
would not be restricted to Nawrangpur district. The next phase would
be carried out in Malkangiri and Kendrapara districts.
Kendrapara is already victimised, now it seems to be the turn for
Malkangiri, where partition victim Bengali refugees were rehabilated
in no less than two Hundre and Fifteen villages.
Malkangiri is a district in the state of Orissa in eastern India. It
is also a small town the headquarters of Malkangiri District. The
district was carved out of erstwhile Koraput District in 1992. On 2nd
October 1992, Koraput was divided into four districts: Nabarangpur,
Rayagada, Koraput and Malkangiri. Malkangiri is situated between 17°
45' to 18° 40' North latitude and 81° 10' East to 82° longitude at an
altitude of 641 feet above the sea level. Oriya is the main language
followed by Bengali and Telugu.Primitive tribes including Bondas,
Koyas, Porajas and Didayis are found in ghats and valleys of the
district. The district has a major jungle cover with small mountains.
Important rivers being Potteru, Sabari, Sileru, Kolab and Machkund.
Balimela hydro electric project is functioning at Balimela one of the
two NACs (Notified Area Council) another one being Malkangiri. Its
hot and humid climate makes the place malaria prone.
The partition victims had been rehabilated in jungle areas of
Orrissa, MP, UP and Maharashtra.Malkangiri consists of Dandakaranya
Project. Malaria was the problem faced by almost all refugees
resttled in different states.
Malkangiri is a very remote area alienated from mainstream. The
Bengali Refugees have been rehabilated in these tribal pockets where
the tribals are the most deprived lot. Outsider refugees and the
tribals stand divided thanks to politics. Number of NGOs (Non
Governmental Organizations and SHGs (Self Help Groups function in
this area claiming to work for the welfare and empowerment of the
tribals and the women through programs like health awareness,
education, vocational skills for livelihood. Christian Missionaries
also are ahead working in the tribal, remote and inaccessible parts
of the district where sometimes even the Government officials fail to
reach. Reaching Hand Society run by Dr. Iris Paul is among the
foremost in the district.
Economy of the district mainly depends on agricultural products like
rasi (til), groundnut, rice etc., and forest produce like kendu leaf,
bamboo, etc. The district mainly depends on neighbouring Jagdalpur,
Raipur (Chattisgarh) and Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram (Andhra Pradesh)
for the trade, business, and medical needs. The nearest main railway
station is Rayagada (160 km.) or Vizianagaram (about 300 km).
The twin language formula, Oriya and Bengali, is a spill-over of the
Nehruvian Dandakaranya Project — to resettle refugees from the
erstwhile East Pakistan, and another wave after Bangladesh was born
in 1971. The Orissa Government now insists that all children must
learn Oriya. The town has a strong presence of Bengalis — hawkers,
petty shop owners, drivers and Government staff from refugee
families. There have also been a few IAS officers, doctors and
engineers from the refugee population. "When I came here with my
parents in 1963, Malkangiri was a jungle. I graduated from here,''
said Minister Arabinda Dhali.
"We cleared the area and cultivated the land given to us. We built
our houses. What you see today is a result of the initiative of the
families resettled here,'' said a group of Bengalis.
Tribals walk down from their enclaves once a week to sell their
wares. "Tribals are not good traders. They cannot bargain and will
accept what you offer. So they are cheated by the Bengali refugees,"
said Sajal Satpathy who owns a phone booth in Malkangiri. The locals
seem to dislike the refugees.
Jeypore (105 km) is the major town located in Koraput district.
Locals are fond of visiting Jeypore for their many needs like
shopping and education. Motu is located at the Mugi point nosetip of
the meeting of two rivers Sileru and Sabari. Motu is at the
trijunction of Orissa, Chattisgarh (Konta) and Andhra Pradesh
(Chintoor). The entire trijunction is under the Naxalite influence.
The local people require abridge over the Sabari river which can make
a lot of difference to the dvelopment of the area by way of
transportation and trade. However the construction of the bridge,
improved road quality and laying of railway lines are not
materialized so far due to many administrative and infrastructural
bottlenecks.
The tribals of Orissa are a marginalised lot as the Bengali refugees
are the dalits. Deprived of their natural environment and traditional
social organisation, they have been driven to the edge of poverty and
destitution.THE highway to Malkangiri is so bad it would be better to
walk all the way. The 700-km drive from Bhubaneshwar lasts over 24
hours, the stretch after Koraput being the longest. Given the poor
transport facility, the time and money spent to and from Malkangiri
can be high. If the drive were smooth, one could marvel at the hill
ranges the trees so tall you couldn't see the tops; the cloud rings
round the hills. The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) battalions
here to curb the People's War Group (PWG) menace number as much as
the general population. The town throbs till dusk, by 9 p.m. shops
close, only the jawans can be seen. A few bright yellow diamonds
dangle in front of phone booths.
The interface between the Bengali settlers and the tribals is a keg
of explosives, say political pandits from 700 km away. A visit to
Padmapur, Jharapalli and some other villages showed otherwise.
The Bengal settlers near Padmapur have named their village
Subhaspalli, it adjoins the area where the tribals live in Padmapur.
The settlers work hard. Women, girls too, roll bidis, while others
make brooms from coconut fronds. Some families run canteens and petty
shops, sales are usually on credit basis. The settlements have
electricity but no health care or irrigation facilities. They are
completely dependent on the rains. "Yes, we suffer a lot. We have
told our elected representative, but nothing has been done. When
tribals pledge their land, we lend cash, and till their land until
they repay the debt. There has been no problem with them so far, but
for how long?" asked a settler.
The Revenue Minister, Bishwa Bhushan Harichandan said in Bhubaneshwar
that there were reports of tribals being alienated from their land.
He said that both the Bengali settlers and tribals were encroaching
on Government land. The firing in Raighar tehsil on October 30, 2001
in which three tribals were killed was a result of tension between
Bengalis and tribals. At Jharapalli, the school was a line of three
single-storey buildings, each about 200 square feet. Weeds grew in
cracks on the walls, the windows had no bars so the children passed
in and out. Passing through the school, literally, shouldn't be a
problem. "But the drop-out rate is high. Tribal children, especially
girls, do not study beyond the third standard, but children of
settlers go through the system," said the headmaster. "The family
will beg if necessary, but they will make their children study," said
a group of Bengali settlers. Bags of paddy were stacked to the
ceiling and paddy was piled high on the ground in almost every house
in this village.
We should discuss the refugee policies and the ways to save the
partition victims.
India's Refugee Policy
The juridical basis of the international obligations to protect
refugees, namely, non-refoulement including non-rejection at the
frontier, non-return, non-expulsion or non-extradition and the
minimum standard of treatment are traced in international conventions
and customary law. The only treaty regime having near universal
effect pertaining to refugees is the 1951 Refugee Convention and its
1967 Protocol on the Status of Refugees which is the magna carta of
refugee law. Since India has not yet ratified or acceded to this
regime its legal obligation to protect refugees is traced mainly in
customary international law. An examination of this aspect raises the
basic question of relation and effect of international law with the
Indian municipal law.
The Constitution of Indian contains just a few provisions on the
status of international law in India. Leading among them is Article
51 (c), which states that "the State [India] shall endeavor to foster
respect for international law and treaty obligations in the dealings
of organized peoples with one another."
Leaving a little confusion, this provision differentiates between
international law and treaty obligations. It is, however, interpreted
and understood that "international law" represents international
customary law and "treaty obligations" represent international
conventional law.(4) Otherwise the Article is lucid and directs India
to foster respect for its international obligations arising under
international law for its economic and social progress. Article 51
(c) is placed under the Directive Principles of State Policy in Part
IV of the Indian Constitution, which means it is not an enforceable
provision. Since the principle laid down in Article 51 is not
enforceable and India has merely to endeavor to foster respect for
international law, this Article would mean prima facie that
international law is not incorporated into the Indian municipal law
which is binding and enforceable. However, when Article 51(c) is read
in the light of other Articles and judicial opinion and foreign
policy statements, it suggests otherwise.
Before India became independent, the Indian courts under British rule
administered the English Common law. They accepted the basic
principles governing the relationship between international law and
municipal law under the common law doctrine. Under the English common
law doctrine, rules of international law in general were not accepted
as part of municipal law. If, however, there was no conflict between
these rules and the rules of municipal law, international law was
accepted in municipal law without any incorporation. Indeed, the
doctrine of common law is specific about certain international
treaties affecting private rights of individuals. To implement such
treaties, the doctrine requires modification of statutory law and the
adoption of the enabling legislation in the form of an Act of
Parliament.
These English common law principles are still applicable to India
even after its independence, by virtue of Article 372 of the
Constitution, which says that:
"all the laws in force in the territory of India immediately before
the commencement of this Constitution shall continue in force therein
until altered or repealed or amended by a competent legislature or
other competent authority."(5)
This common law practice has been followed by the Indian executive,
legislature and judiciary even after the independence of India. For
instance, until the specific legislations were adopted India observed
the international customary rules regarding immunity from domestic
jurisdiction and law of the sea particularly with regard to the high
seas, maritime belt, and innocent passage.
Confirming the common law principle relating to the specific
incorporation of certain treaties, Article 253 provides that:
" Parliament has power to make any law for the whole or any part of
the territory of India for implementing any treaty, agreement or
convention with any other country or countries or any decision made
at any international conference, association or other body."
What`s conspicuous is the selection and timing of victims. Such
deportations have not been implemented since 2002 ? almost 125
unauthorized Bangladeshi settlers were deported between 1973 and 2002
in the state. The last time such a drive was undertaken was in 2002,
when the Patnaik government arrested 22 illegal settlers in the
Dandakaranya settlement region of Nowrangpur and pushed them through
the Bangladesh border. It was not successful ? a few days later, all
of them sneaked through the porous Indo-Bangladesh border to their
homes.
The partition of India is customarily described in surgical
metaphors, as an operation, an amputation, a vivisection or a
dismemberment. By extension, the new borders created in 1947 are
often thought of as incision scars.
The division of British India into India and Pakistan in August 1947
was accompanied by the dislocation of between twelve and sixteen
million people and the violent deaths of around a million. Punjab and
Bengal, the two provinces that were divided, were the most affected
but so were other parts of the country. After all, mixed populations
(Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Christian, and so on) were more the norm than
not in rural and urban India, making the very notion of two
homelands, one with a Muslim majority and another with a Hindu
majority, somewhat difficult to realize. Apparently the leadership
expected what was euphemistically referred to as "an orderly exchange
of population" in spite of the fact that the boundaries were
officially announced on August 17, 1947, that is, after the actual
transfer of power to the two successor states on August 14–15, 1947.
Individuals, families, and communities that found themselves on
the "wrong" side of the border were dispossessed of land and home,
faced with the threat of bodily harm, spent months on the road and in
refugee camps, and began the long process of resettlement
The partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 was followed by the
forced uprooting of an estimated 18 million people. This paper
focuses on the predicament of the minority communities in East
Pakistan (now Bangladesh) who were uprooted and forced to seek
shelter in the Indian province of West Bengal. It considers the
responses of Indian federal and provincial governments to the
challenge of refugee rehabilitation. A study is made of the
Dandakaranya scheme which was undertaken after 1958 to resettle the
refugees by colonising forest land: the project was sited in a
peninsular region marked by plateaus and hill ranges which the
refugees, originally from the riverine and deltaic landscape of
Bengal, found hard to accept. Despite substantial official
rehabilitation efforts, the refugees demanded to be resettled back in
their "natural habitat" of Indian Bengal. However, this was resisted
by the state. Notwithstanding this opposition, a large number of East
Bengal refugees moved back into regions which formed a part of
erstwhile undivided Bengal where, without any government aid and
planning, they colonised lands and created their own habitats. Many
preferred to become squatters in the slums that sprawled in and
around Calcutta. The complex interplay of identity and landscape, of
dependence and self-help, that informed the choices which the
refugees made in rebuilding their lives is analysed in the paper.
Nehru became prime minister of India, and Jinnah governor-general of
Pakistan. Partition left large minorities of Hindus and Sikhs in
Pakistan and Muslims in India. Widespread hostilities erupted among
the communities and continued while large numbers of people—about 16
million in all—fled across the borders seeking safety. More than
500,000 people died in the disorders (late 1947). Gandhi was killed
by a Hindu fanatic in Jan., 1948. The hostility between India and
Pakistan was aggravated when warfare broke out (1948) over their
conflicting claims to jurisdiction over the princely state of Kashmir.
Sumanta Banerjee wrote in his article `Heroines from a lost
homeland ` the most complex problem of continuous refugee influx from
East Bengal and the difference between the experiences of Punjabi and
Bengali refugees are well elaboarated.He wrote:
The stories told by the Hindus and Sikhs who fled their homeland in
west Punjab (when it was becoming a part of Pakistan) during the
Partition, and became refugees in Delhi and other parts of east
Punjab (which became a part of the Indian Union), are different from
those of the Bengali Hindu families. They had to leave East Bengal on
the eve of the Partition (before it turned into a constituent of
Pakistan), driven out by the violent religious persecution in 1946,
which reached its nadir in the Noakhali killings.
He elaborates: There is another major difference between the
narratives of the refugees from west Punjab and those from East
Bengal. The uprooting in Punjab occurred in one swift swipe, with a
virtual exchange of the majority of Hindu and Muslim population
across the borders. While some six million Muslims crossed over to
west Pakistan, four and a half million Hindus and Sikhs had moved
into India by 1948. In Bengal, the migration continued over decades,
with the Hindu refugees coming in trickles. By 1970, their number had
reached five million. As for the Punjabi refugees (who came in a one-
shot migration), by the 1950s they had been more or less re-settled;
their problems solved on a once-and-for-all basis. But the plight of
the refugees in West Bengal became a long-standing problem because of
the peculiar historical situation and developments in the then East
Pakistan, which determined the flow of these refugees. It is
necessary to remember that a large number of Hindus in erstwhile East
Pakistan; despite the Noakhali killings of 1946 - refused to leave
their homeland immediately after Partition. But many among them were
gradually driven out by violent acts of religious persecution carried
out against them in certain parts of East Pakistan. Their migration
took the form of periodic influx. In 1950, more than one million
crossed over to West Bengal. In 1964 again, following another
outburst of communal frenzy there, some six lakh Hindus took refuge
in West Bengal. In 1970, when the then Pakistan government was
clamping down upon all Bengali political opponents, many Hindu
families, feeling more threatened than Muslims, crossed over to West
Bengal (their number rising, according to one unofficial estimate, to
around two million). The story of the Bengali refugees therefore did
not end with the 1947 Partition. It reads like an unending tale of
long-suffering migrants, spanning decades; their plight was described
as a 'wasting disease' by one perceptive observer.
He wrote:The years immediately following the Bengal Famine of 1943
witnessed the consolidation of communal ideologies culminating in the
riots of 1946 in Calcutta and the violence in Noakhali on 1946-47.
During the infamous Noakhali riots of 1946, where the Hindu minority
was ravaged, the visit of Gandhiji, along with Sucheta Kripalini,
Renuka Roy and Sneharani Kanjilal, greatly helped restore peace.
Gandhiji went to a village called Kadihati and planted a jackfruit
sapling as a symbol of peace in the compound of the Kadihati High
School. Over the years, the sapling grew into a tree, first in East
Pakistan, then in Bangladesh, alongside a diminutive and steadily
declining minority community. The people of Noakhali actively took
part in Jehad Movement in 1830 and Khilafat Movement in 1920. What
shocked the conscience of India even more than Calcutta, was the
large-scale murder, loot, arson, rape, abduction and forced marriage
of Hindu women in the Noakhali District of Eastern Bengal. This time
the trouble came about in the October of 1946.
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